Legasista Preview

Ever played a “survival action/RPG” with a distinct Japanese flair combined with the dungeon crawling of classic Zelda? No? Then you should probably check out the latest from NIS America, Legasista, which is slated to release in just a few weeks time on the PSN. Taking place in the future where all technological achievements have been lost to time and anything science-related is treated with suspicion and awe, the world is fantastical and involving. Perhaps the most apt comparison would be to the ClaDun franchise.

But the developers are taking the aforementioned formula to a whole new level, as they’ve created “thousands of attack combos” and will allow players to fully customize your weapons and character skills. As for the story, you will play as Alto, whose sister has been petrified by a curse. Alto heads to the mysterious Tower of Ivy, which is the only remnant of a distant past where technology once held sway; it’s Alto’s belief that a cure can be found inside. Little does he know what he’ll find buried in that ancient structure…yep, enemies and traps!

One of the coolest parts of the gameplay is the ability to both follow the linear adventure and do some fruitful exploring. The dungeons in the Tower of Ivy are randomly generated as well, so each trip will be a little different. In fact, bizarre bean sprout NPCs will lead you to optional areas where the challenge is tougher, but as a result, the rewards are greater. And as you can see in the gameplay video, this is a fully robust, in-depth role-playing experience, with all the requisite character stats, abilities, and specialties. It also has that patented Japanese flair, which some of the veteran JRPG aficionados really appreciate.

And beyond the standard leveling up, upgrading, and learning new skills, there’s the expanded poison mechanic that seems interesting. Poison is nothing new in RPGs, but this is a tad different— There are various classes of poison and while most by themselves will cause a problem (sleep, paralysis, HP drain, etc.), the right combination of poisons can actually help. For instance, one combination will cause you to hallucinate, but it must be a good kind of hallucinating, because you’ll be able to see other traps and hidden objects when in that altered state.

Lastly, speaking of character customization, you can create some of your own art designs entirely from scratch. Developer System Prism is tossing in a painting program that will let you get all creative; when done, the game will add animation to your invention. Or, you can import images from the PS3’s hard drive and the game will change the pictures into characters. Further editing is also allowed. So this should be catnip to hardcore RPG fans who miss the old days when dungeon crawlers were common. And remember, Legasista has, in many ways, gone above and beyond.

I'll definitely be checking this game out that it's for the PS3 and not the PSP. Nothing wrong with the PSP but I've been wanting this style of game that I can play on my TV, games like this have mostly been stuck on the hand-helds this gen.

For anyone that's in any doubt about this game, from what I understand it playes like the dungeon crawlers of old. Think games like Rogue, UMoria, NetHack, then apply a goodly amount of graphical flair to those ancient character based games, and throw in some old skool console dungeon crawler style and flair for good measure. Then blend it with some more modern RPG features and a character editor. Done that? OK, now you pretty much have it.

For anyone that doesn't know Rogue, Umoria, Moria, or even Nethack. Imagine a game on an old Text only terminal running on a Unix system. Based loosly on DnD and otehr similar role playing systems, the character creation is simple, and the dungeon that's generated is semi-random. As you delve deeper into it, the enemies become stronger...I'd try to demonstrate the way it looked in this comment, but the proportional font it displays in will destroy the look. So I will add a reply with a link.

As for Legasista, I've been watching this one for months, I've posted links to it multiple times in comments before. It looks like it could be tremendous fun. It's on my immediate purchase list.Last edited by TheHighlander on 7/27/2012 10:14:34 AM

In these pictures the player is the '@' character, everything else is either walls, floor, item's to pick up or enemies to fight. The most up to date versions of these ancient games (yes people still work on the code) have color applied to the characters, and even in Windows versions there are skins for the games to make the look prettier (though I think the originals work better). Here's an example of that:http://www.gamesetwatch.com/atplay/nethackearly1.png

Been following this for awhile and it seems to be the perfect after-taste to Rainbow Moon.

Is it just me or are PSN games thriving the most this year? I've bought few new retail games and many PSN games that have thrilled me much more than the former. One even became my personal 6th 10/10 - Journey.

It's not just you. NISAmerica also seems to be thriving...could not happen to a better bunch.

The jury is still out on Level 5 however after the WKC2 avatar quest fiasco. As for D3 publisher, they are just plain misleading and confusing. They tell everyone bluntly and categorically that there will be no more DLC. Then here we are several months later and they release DLC for WKC2 (story knight weapons for players own knights to use). Their original statement ignited a great deal of anger towards D3, L5 and Sony, and this recent release of DLC has simply confused the hell out of people.

I really hope L5 can get things straightened out for WKC2 players because there are a lot of them that currently won't give Ni No Kuni the time of day because of the treatment they have received - basically second class citizens compared to Japanese gamers. I know Ni No Kuni is being published by Namco not D3, but D3 is owned by Namco, so it's the same differnce.

It's not any developer in particular, it's most games that appear on PSN. In fact, it's mostly indie developers.

Nothings out on L5 besides those who play WKC greatly, which is a small percentage. Now i'm not denying anything about this certain small problem, but what i am saying is that such a small possible miss-step in no way negates the genius JRPG overtake they have accomplished and Ni No Kuni will outsell WKC massively due to it's wide appeal. So a few 50 or so angry internet folk isn't exactly a jury.

However, as i said, i'm also not negating any problem they may of caused players in WKC. I'm saying that it won't effect them at all. Such a small problem on an unpopular, yet great game will not erase their new found impact.

Infact, those few moaners are acting childish and violent toward L5. They could give PS3 users themselves a little dent and in worst case scenario, deter L5 away from Sony loyalty. That's an exaggeration, but you get the point.

Unpopular? Well, let's see, 240,000 folks purchased WKC2 outside Japan. That's 240,000 JRPG fans who paid good money to Level 5 for a product only to have the publisher in NA abandon them. If I were level 5 and about to release a new JRPG in the NA territory, I'm not sure I would be terribly happy with the prospect of a significant portion of that 240,000 group of JRPG fans being pissed with Level 5.

If you wanted to be condescending, you certainly succeeded with your post. I'm not sure what exactly you think you're saying, but it comes across as basically saying; "So what if they screwed you over WKC2, that was a crap game and only childish and immature people would be upset at being screwed. Besides, if you complain too loudly you'll annoy Level 5 and they will stop making games for PS3. So, kindly take what you're given and shut up."

No thanks Lotus, and no thanks to your patronizing BS. Not sure why you chose this path in this comment, but you did, and that's that.

lol you have me confused. I was in no way being malicious. I actually said i saw it your way but proceeded to see it another too and the latter way far outweighs the former from facts presented.

"it comes across as basically saying; "So what if they screwed you over WKC2, that was a crap game and only childish and immature people would be upset at being screwed. Besides, if you complain too loudly you'll annoy Level 5 and they will stop making games for PS3. So, kindly take what you're given and shut up." " Again confused. I've stated my love for WKC incredibly over here AND in the post above. You either only read/hear what you want to see or are very sensitive about WKC (which would explain your anger). And yes, going from what i have read on L5's facebook, the upset fans are coming across rude and immature...which gets nothing done other than painting that complainer in a negative light.

So, to keep things short and as peaceful as possible, my original post stands. It's a small problem on a fairly unpopular game and furthermore, fewer people of that group complaining. That 240,000 are not all playing it now and as stated, not all who are playing it now are upset. It's a terribly small number. Whether L5 have miss-stepped or not, it's not going to harm them to anyone but a few hundred, at best, players.

If they continually miss-stepped, especially on far more popular L5 games like Professor Layton or DQ, then yeah, i'll constructively criticise them and the backlash may harm them, but this small WKC fiasco, regardless of what it means to you, won't harm them.

Relax a bit, take a break from the game, man! There's so much more to life than getting emotional over locked content on a game that will possibly get resolved. You still got 400hrs out of it lol.

Anyway, you brought up L5 out of nowhere, so.....again, confusionLast edited by Lotusflow3r on 7/28/2012 8:05:18 AM